Chuck Versus The Next Step
by Metropolis-Rising
Summary: Sequel to Chuck Versus The General. Chuck goes through the pitfalls and rewards that his meeting with General Beckman earned him, and steps as bravely as he can onto the new path. Definite Charah within!


Chuck Versus The Next Step

_Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck, no money being made off of these fan creations._

_A/N: Due to the great response to Chuck Versus The General (which you should read if you haven't, since this is the sequel), I'm starting the second part (of a few more, at least). Initially I thought of skipping over the day after the "interview" but I got some great ideas for dialogue after catching up on season 2 thanks to Hulu. Let the entertainment begin! Hopefully. :D_

_A/N 2: I'm really glad Chuck is on TV, but after "Chuck Vs. The Beefcake", my resolve in creating this tangent is even stronger. Man, I just have to trust that Schwartz and Fedak have our best interests at heart. There is a small section below that utilizes and "fixes" moments from that episode though, you have your spoiler alert. :)_

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Chuck entered John Casey's apartment, excited and nervous about what was about to happen. After the early morning mission where he had convinced General Beckman to begin training him to handle a change of status had been successful, she had insisted that Chuck come clean with his protection detail.

_"I know that you will most likely be nervous about full disclosure of the depth of your plan, Mr. Bartowski, but in my opinion you need to start this new assignment with honesty. Major Casey will undoubtedly be displeased with you but he also has orders to protect you from harm, even if it is from himself."_

_Chuck had laughed nervously, "I understand Ma'am. You do realize that 'harm' is a relative term? I wish I couldn't count the times that Casey has explained, in overly vivid detail, about how well a man can function with up to 40 percent of his extremities broken...."_

_Beckman looked at Chuck with a bemused look on her face, "Consider it your pre-training for evasion lessons, Chuck. I will be extremely disappointed if you have more than two broken fingers after tonight. Beckman out." _

Chuck shook off the moment of recollection and took a position near the door and smiled inwardly as the monitor flared to life with Beckman's face, hoping that this was going to go better than he thought it would.

**Fourty-five minutes later.....**

Sarah wandered around the apartment complex before coming across a very nice tree that had a brand new official government contractor/asset hiding in it.

Though she was as confused about the General's announcement as Casey was furious with Chuck, she couldn't help but feel like they were all at the lip of something very big.

Something very good.

"You know, I have a friend who told me about the squirrels up by Yosemite. Bigger than cats, from what I heard. Still, I never expected to see such a big one in the city," Sarah teased up into the tree, her voice lilting.

"Well, I'm sorry to say that you still haven't. There happens to be a North American Scaredy Cat up here right now. _Terror Felinae_." Chuck called down, more amused than fearful.

"Isn't Felinae the term for the grouping of the genus? Plus, terror isn't latin for scaredy..."

"Oh sure, correct my jokes while I have a semi psychotic NSA operative hunting me down because I gave him super powered 'Sleepy Time' tea yesterday," Chuck peeked down at Sarah with a smile in place. He judged the distance as acceptable before hooking his knees onto a bough and tumbling over backwards, falling through the air and slapping his hands down to distribute his momentum evenly as he landed.

"That was unusually graceful for you Chuck," Sarah joked in order to keep the surprise from her voice.

"That? That was me playing too much Mirror's Edge with Morgan last week and then studying a bunch of parkour technique on my phone at the Buy More," Chuck dusted off his hands and offered one out for Sarah, which she accepted, her mind reeling at everything that had happened over that last hour.

"And people say video games are a waste of time," Chuck said smugly as his favorite CIA agent escorted him to her car. "Are we heading to the hotel?" Chuck asked hopefully, his eyes scanning for Casey.

Sarah gave Chuck a guarded look, before shooting him a brief smile, "Don't get any ideas, mister. I'm insuring that my 'new' team member is going to get a restful night's sleep, instead of tossing and turning while waiting for Casey to burst through the Morgan door."

"She did set it up interestingly didn't she? Saying that we were gaining a new team member?"

Sarah laughed, "I never suspected that the General had a mischievous side to her. I figured she traded one of those stars for her sense of humor."

Chuck took a deep breath as he strapped into the passenger seat of Sarah's Porsche, "I think that we're all capable of surprises now and then."

Sarah looked at him with her peripheral vision as she blasted through the early evening streets on their way to the hotel. "Yeah, I'm starting to see that."

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"GOD DAMNIT!" Casey bellowed as he stormed back into his apartment, throwing Chuck's most recent tracker watch against the wall so hard it shattered just to avoid a worse fate.

"Ahem," a commanding voice said, causing Casey to snap to attention immediately (but not surprising him, NEVER surprising him).

Casey turned and saw that the communication channel that the team ran out on when Chuck admitted to herbally incapacitating Casey the night before is still very open, Beckman working on some paperwork, but very obviously still there and waiting for some resolution.

"Major, I'm willing to overlook the unsanctioned abandonment of my briefing if you can tell me why Mr. Bartowski isn't currently turning a vivid shade of purple in a headlock?"

Casey wasn't sure, but he thought the General was teasing him.

"The Intersect evaded me temporarily, Ma'am."

"May I inquire as to how?"

Yep, she's definitely teasing him, in her multi-star ranked way.

"Tapioca and Pudding, Ma'am."

"Beg pardon, Major?"

John almost growled, but years of respect for the chain of command kick in and he begins to relay the situation as he has been trained.

"A neighbor in the complex has two very spry tabby cats, Ma'am. Damn Bartowski placed his watch AND his secondary, supposedly unknown, tracker that was in his shoe, on the animals prior to entering the debriefing. They of course fled the complex and thus aided Bartowski in his evasion as I tried to use the devices to track him."

The General takes a moment and writes this down before returning her attention to Casey.

"Elementary but effective, wouldn't you agree, Major?"

_Damn Bartowski suddenly grows an actual pair. Of course I agree, _Casey thought, trying to balance burgeoning affection for his asset with the overwhelming desire to strangle the nerd.

"God help us when he's trained properly in the craft, Ma'am."

"Which is precisely why he IS going to be trained, Major. Bartowski executed a first level infiltration and utilized at least third level programming skills to convince me of his inherent worth and apparent dedication to becoming an Operator. It is my, as well as others, belief that the long term success of Project: Omaha will be for the better with Chuck becoming a willing team player, instead of the unskilled, but effective, hand-wringing civilian he has been until now."

Casey thinks about what is coming for Chuck in the immediate future and suppresses a sigh.

_Get ready kid. Get damn ready._

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Sarah came awake suddenly the next morning, unaccustomed to not being woken by her alarm that Chuck got for her. A brief moment of panic seized her when she realized that Chuck isn't there next to her in bed, until she spied the folded note at her bedside with a large smiley face on it.

_Sarah,_

_Went for breakfast._

_-C-_

Sarah smiles to herself, her secret smile that she indulges in when Chuck can't see how she feels about him. Even after a year plus of his company and their back and forth, part of her, a very rapidly dwindling part, hates Charles Bartowski a little. She hates that he's challenging her every idea about what she deserves, and about what she wants, especially now that a few huge obstacles are out of the way with last nights briefings.

For the longest time, Sarah wanted to be a weapon, as cold and as sharp as one of her knives. Bryce screwed that up a fair amount, her brain thinking that chemical attraction was as good as it got. Then Chuck happened. Chuck the asset, Chuck the Nerd, Chuck the completely infuriating and totally lov- totally endearing.

_Watch it Sarah, _she chastised, _you watch your step._

Except now, in the morning after they had slept in her bed so that he was safe from Casey until the Major calmed down a bit, all of her self admonishments seemed so weak in the morning light. She never slept as well as she did than when she slept with Chuck, even when it was for cover. Her mornings had never been as nice until she started spending them with Chuck.

Allowing another small indulgence, Sarah smelled Chuck's pillow, taking in his scent. Chuck wore a very subtle fragrance, almost undetectable, but Sarah had come to know it all too well. It was a faint combination of sandalwood and citrus that combined with Chuck's natural scent to create a horribly tantalizing scent to Sarah. It smelled sexy and safe. It smelled like home.

_It's probably what I'll be taunted with when I'm paying for my crimes...._ Sarah thought darkly before the door rattled, signifying Chuck's return. As soon as she saw him, all her self recrimination vanished like a snowflake in Tahiti.

"I've got fruit and eggs and fresh croissant," Chuck said with a flourish, his eyes full of affection for her.

She was running out of excuses to not be head over heels in love with Chuck Bartowski.

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Chuck and Morgan walked through the Buy More two days after the first night he'd spent at the hotel with Sarah, Morgan moaning about Big Mike having relations with his mother and Chuck going over the past few days of Sarah Walker's company.

He was winning. He was finally getting some real ground against all of the barriers the two of them had erected between each other. Chuck had confided in Sarah about Bryce's terrible advice regarding Sarah the last time the exceptionally skilled train-wreck had been in town and she had promptly smacked the back of Chuck's head.

_"You don't listen to anybody about what's right for US any more, okay? Even I'm suspect, Chuck. Morgan is probably the only person who you should listen to- did I just say that?"_

_Chuck laughed and took another bite of Double O fro-yo goodness before bumping Sarah's shoulder. _

_"That's good to hear, especially after how you were when we got done in the suburbs..."_

_"I'm sorry about that Chuck, but you know what the logic was there. I won't apologize for wanting to protect you."_

_"And thus, I won't ask you for an apology. In fact, look at this new course of action as my apology to you, Sarah Walker."_

_"Chuck..."_

_"Hear me out Sarah. I was really focused on us, and on you, and I somehow still hadn't yet seen how important your duty was to you. It still seemed like 'the other thing' in your life, as opposed to how it WAS your life. I'm sorry I kept trying to make you choose."_

_Sarah couldn't look at Chuck while he was saying these amazing and partially true things._

_She wanted to console him and tell him it wasn't just her job that had kept them apart, she wanted to tell him how much she truly and deeply cared for him and how much this new attitude was rocking her ideals of who he was to their foundations._

_Damn, she just wanted to kiss the hell out of him as they hadn't really kissed in a long time, especially not over the past few days since Beckman had announced the new direction Chuck had convinced her to go in._

_Instead Chuck's phone rang, the timer letting him know that his morning break was up and he needed to hustle back to the Buy More._

_Chuck had never hated his phone more than he did right then, but took a chance as to whatever he and Sarah were becoming._

_"Gotta run, Ms. Walker. Thanks for the tasty treat," Chuck said quietly and lifted her chin with a finger. _

_Their eyes connected and they both felt the butterflies go into overdrive, more powerful than ever before, and that was saying something considering some of their past moments._

_In a rare moment, Chuck simply caressed Sarah's shoulders with a firm grip and touched her forehead with his, before vanishing all too quickly afterwards._

And now Chuck was listening to his best friend bemoan the love lives of people that ought not be spoken of.

"So anyways, do you think I could crash at your place, Chuck? I swear I'll be good...."

"Tell you what Morgan, I'll talk to Ellie and Devin, pull the puppy dog eyes on them and you can use my room for a few days."

"What? Where will you-" Morgan stopped and awareness dawned on his bearded features, "Oh yeah, up high! Chuck-chuckety-chick-chuck is spending some quality time with his Nordic goddess at her winter palace!"

"Something like that," Chuck eyed Morgan's hand poised for a high five with amusement, "For the record, I'm pretty sure Sarah's of Polish descent."

Morgan fluttered his hands diffidently, "Minor details, my dear Charles, details."

Chuck's brain crackled into overdrive akin to when he was flashing on something of extreme importance and his eyes widened.

"Morgan?"

"Buh?"

"I'm going to have to insist that you at least wear the silk 'Sith' boxers that Anna got for you when sleeping at mi casa..."

Morgan quailed, "But, but, you know I must be unfettered! The M-Organ must run free in the night time hours!"

"Fetter yourself for Ellie and Awesome's sake, yeah?"

Morgan gave in quickly when he realized that it was a small price to pay for the peace he so desperately needed.

"Fine, fine! But we're lucky that the dark side is so seductively gentle against my 'tenderness'."

As Chuck laughed, he marveled at the fact that his friend of two decades, still refereed to his man bits as "the tenderness". Good lord, he was glad he'd gotten his head together recently.

_Who knows what I might have forgotten otherwise?_

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_a/n- the next two sections are spoilers for "Chuck Vs. The Beefcake", you've been warned (again)._

They were in a bad place. The helicopter was spraying the rooftop with rounds and Sarah was out of ideas. The whole night had turned completely FUBAR and she was about to start getting worried. After the past few days and Chuck going over his compelling logic regarding to his new life path, Sarah thought that things might all be for naught.

"Sarah!" Chuck yelled over the din, "Sarah!" his voice yanked her out of her mind.

Sarah looked to Chuck, thinking of the things she wanted to say, looking at the idiot Brit she had wasted precious time with this evening, and then Chuck flashed he a little grin that was completely out of place considering the situation.

"Cover your eyes and ears and exhale, Walker!" Sarah instantly recognized Chuck's 'Carmichael' persona coming out to play.

She could hardly believe it when Chuck produced a flash-bang from his pocket and activated it, cooking the puck for a few seconds. Then she definitely couldn't believe it when Chuck used a brief pause in the Gunship's firing cycle to huck the grenade into the hatch. One brief moment of sound and fury later, the helicopter was spinning drunkenly and smashing into the ground below, Sarah and the British man gaping at Chuck in amazement.

Chuck, for his part, grinned the grin of the insanely lucky. "Skeeball. Who knew?"

Casey ran to edge of the roof and looked down at the wreckage, letting loose a low whistle, before turning back to Chuck and completely deadpanned a peace offering to Chuck.

"Great shot, kid. That was one in a million, now let's blow this joint and get the limey into custody."

Chuck and Sarah started giggling, drained from the ordeal, before bursting into outright laughter and started to lead the (not so) Fulcrum agent back to the Castle.

Cole Barker shook his head. These people were terribly odd. Damn talented, but bloody odd.

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The mission progressed quickly after that. Cole had assisted the team in recovering the chip and shutting down the local Fulcrum Cell, apprehending the Fulcrum agents when they obtained the chip viewer at the scheduled trade, and before you knew it Sarah was politely kissing the undercover MI-6 agent on the cheek and sending him back to the Crown's embrace, the foreign agent none the wiser to Chuck's secret of the Intersect. The would be James Bond had made a pass at her, and Sarah held up a finger to stop him.

"Cole....that's very sweet. To be honest, at one point I might have been tempted. However...." Sarah let her eyes linger on Chuck's face, a smile ghosting her lips.

"Carmichael," Cole said with resigned understanding. "He's a hell of an operator, and well, the way he looks at you when he thinks you don't see....I'm impressed you're even taking the time to brush me off this gently, Walker."

Sarah laughed and they both looked over to where Chuck was being berated by Casey for removing a flash-bang from the armory, and Chuck trying to look very serious about listening to Casey, despite the fact that he was disabling the tracking device from the data chip so that no Fulcrum operatives could trace their location.

"Ah well. Can't win them all and I'm almost positive I have a few friends waiting to console me back in dear old blighty," Cole tried vainly.

Sarah wasn't buying his game at any exchange rate, and rolled her eyes at his mock self-pity. "Then you'd better get to the airport," she said and patronizingly patted Cole's cheek before black bagging him for the trip to the car.

Shortly after they were gone, Chuck looked up from the Fulcrum device he was cataloging for the archive. "Do people actually buy that bit Casey?"

Casey harumphed and gave Chuck a piercing stare, "If you hadn't pulled your head out your ass

in the last few weeks, you better believe that that 'bit' would have been mighty attractive to Walker."

Chuck quit fiddling with the technology he was rapidly coming to understand, and smiled gleefully at his perpetually grouchy NSA partner/bodyguard. "I think you almost complimented me there, AND you talked about Sarah with me. Thanks!"

Casey's eyes suddenly widened in horror. "You just tricked me into talking about your relation-whatever-the-hell-it-is. You total bastard!"

Chuck snorted, "C'mon Casey it's not that-"

"Bupbupbup! No more words from you!"

"Case-"

"Lalalalalala!" John quickly moved out the back of the Castle, heading back to the Buy More, preferring to think of it as a strategic retreat from inanity and a tar pit conversation of the worst kind.

_a/n- end spoilers, back to your regularly scheduled AU fic. Sorry, but I had to fix that nightmare for this version of Chuck._

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"You need to work on this Chuck, you're rotten at resistance to this stuff and you need to increase your tolerance!"

Sarah and Chuck were in Sarah's hotel room, a few days after their most recent mission, and had been arguing playfully for almost twenty minutes now all over the same thing.

Chuck was pants at having a beautiful woman use seduction technique on or around him.

"This is ridiculous Sarah! I'm fine without this, I could be training on visualization and memory, or hand to hand. Let's go for a run! You like to run!" Chuck was pacing the room, waving his arms about and was reaching a level five of goofy adorableness in Sarah's private "Chuck Bartowski Cute Ratings" book.

Sarah pounced, "So you want to see me all sweaty?" she purred, running a finger down his t-shirt clad chest, biting her lower lip and gazing into Chuck's eyes.

"What?! Yes! No!" Chuck stumbled backwards while his brain screamed_ FORWARD! FORWARD, YOU FOOL!! _until he ran out of room and his legs were against Sarah's bed. "You tricked me," Chuck pouted he abandoned all pretense of resistance as Sarah maneuvered and pushed him into a sitting position. She slowly straddled his lap,resting high up on her knees so that she wasn't actually making contact with Chuck.

"Maybe," she answered, turning up the heat in her gaze and leaned forward, brushing her hair across Chuck's face.

"Sarah," Chuck said quietly, the panicky note having gone from his voice, instead being replaced with something else.

Sarah pulled back and was startled at how Chuck had pulled it all in, all his nervous energy tightly bound and almost out of sight. "Is everything okay?" said softly, unsure of what was happening.

"Sarah, I-" Chuck swallowed hard and looked down, his arms coming to rest on either side of her, the heat in the contact of his arms with her legs causing a strong sensation in her body.

"I can't do this with you."

Sarah almost jerked away from him, her mind confused and racing, but steadied herself, having paid the price for jumping the gun in the past with Chuck.

"The last few days, staying here, REALLY talking with you, sleeping here....they've been amazing. But this game right now, I don't need to practice with you. I don't want to see your technique as if I was a mark. I want- I need to know-"

Sarah heard the desire in his quiet voice, coiled and dangerous for both of them; her hand reached up of its own accord and lifted his jaw so the could see his eyes. His perfect amber-brown eyes which were dilated and dark and hot as hell and drilled into her cerulean eyes like a laser.

"Oh fuck it," Chuck growled and grabbed her as she had once grabbed him in front of what was supposed to be a bomb, and he attacked her mouth, every ounce of need in him flooding her senses.

_Finally_, Agent Walker thought to herself, damn ecstatic that he had finally broke through his walls and had made a move.

She ran her hands through his hair, _god, I love these curls, _she thought, glad that she had talked him into going back to his old hair style with the curls natural, opposed to whatever he'd been doing lately with the product that gave him helmet hair. Their kisses stretched out a bit, and she took the time to suck his bottom lip into her mouth and taste him as he slowly ran his hands up her back.

As she fit her body to his, their clothes a frustrating barrier, she felt Chuck slowing his movements, frenzy replaced with care, and lifted her chin as he kissed her neck all the way up to her ear...

"Eep!" _Damn it, did I just squeak? That's never happened before!_

_"_Sarah, you just squeaked," Chuck said into her neck, and she could hear that damn smile in his voice. "Sarah Walker has a squeak spot!" Chuck said delightedly and then he kissed her again, right where her jaw and neck muscles came together, right underneath her ear. Sarah responded again with a muffled half-moan, half-squeak, and Chuck pulled away with a small satisfied smile on his lips, his hands resting just above her hips and curled around to her back.

They sat like that for a few minutes, their eyes locked on each others, and simply sharing warmth and space in a way they had both been wanting to do for a long time before Sarah tried to break the silence.

"Chuck," Sarah said quietly, "I want you to-" and then he kissed her again softly before breaking the contact.

"Sarah, please go running with me," Chuck said, in the voice he usually used when speaking about things much more important. "I seem to have gotten a lot of energy and you and I both know that I need to tighten up my work out habits, even if Bartowskis are naturally gifted with slenderness."

Sarah sensed what he was doing and felt even more desire and affection for Chuck fill her.

He was taking it slow, taking his time, now that they were on the same level. He was doing things right and controlling the moves they made so that they didn't rush into a situation, rush in and miss the moment.

She slid away from him, her skin wailing in near anger at his removal, and she watched him go to change into workout clothes, Chuck stripping his shirt off as her went into the bathroom and grinning over his shoulder at her.

_Bastard, _she thought affectionately to herself, praising whatever deity had sent the muse to Chuck that had started this chain of events as she got into her own workout clothes..

_It won't be long until I'm completely screwed._

Sarah snorted ruefully at her unintentional double entendre.

_Still though, his resistance is definitely increasing, even as mine is dwindling._

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"How are they?"

"Mr. Carmichael-"

"Answer me."

The resident on duty at the NSA approved medical station paused, he'd heard about this team before, heard about how effective they had been in L.A. and he knew not to mess about with Charles Carmichael.

"Operative Walker is resting as comfortably as can be. Thankfully, none of the three ballistic wounds were serious and were all clean. She did accrue a spiral fracture in her left ankle and will need to be in a cast for six weeks, minimum, on top of any PT afterwards."

_She's going to be livid_, Chuck thought worriedly, though his features darkened even further causing the doctor to hurry to Casey's prognosis.

"Major Casey just came out of surgery and his vitals are stable. His ballistic injuries were a little more serious, but not life threatening. He did, however, break his collar bone pretty badly on the right side. That will definitely take in the eight week range to heal fully,"

Chuck's eyes flared and the doctor actually took a step back,

"Butthey'llbothmakeafullrecovery!" the doctor finished in a hurry before walking away from Chuck as gracefully as a fast walk could be.

"Doctor, please," Chuck asked quietly, realizing that scaring people was Casey's job and he didn't enjoy it.

The doctor stopped, confusion short circuiting his concern for his own safety.

"Are the men we apprehended going to make it?"

The doctor sighed heavily, "Yes, I believe so. From what I understand, you were the one who incapacitated them?"

"If by incapacitate you mean hit most of them with the rear end of a Toyota Yaris and then deploy a metallic weave over them which delivered 120,000 volts of electricity, then you bet I incapacitated them. They were firing high powered weapons at my team." Chuck snarled, his protective streak rearing up.

"In any case, the most they suffered was a handful of broken limbs and ribs and the shame of defecating themselves. They'll be turned over to a data extraction team shortly." The doctor removed himself from the room and left Chuck to his thoughts.

Chuck sighed. He had protected his team, but he'd almost killed people doing so. He had been responsible for the deaths of Fulcrum agents in the helicopter he brought down a week prior, and he'd already filed a psych report on that, apparently leaning towards not harboring guilt about hurting bad people doing bad things..

_At some point you're going to have to get a lot more comfortable with hurting- maybe even killing the bad guys, Chuck, _the voice that sounded a great deal like Ellie's whispered in his head. _If you taking them out at the cost of Sarah and Casey's continued health is the price, then it really isn't a contest. Even less of a quibble if they were threatening non-spy-world people too._

When the Fulcrum Intersect data had been uploaded to his head, Chuck had seen exactly what they thought a righteous path to power looked like. James Cameron's "Judgement Day" looked like a Sunday outing when compared to some of their plans.

Chuck had accepted that duty sometimes meant making the hard choice that is right, but is also difficult, when protecting innocents and allies. His nightmares had showed him that and now his reality showed him that too as the woman he loved and his taciturn partner were both laid up with injuries.

He would make the hard choice again, without hesitation.

He knew it.

But now, he had to report.

Chuck pulled out his phone and activated the secure line to General Beckman, unsurprised that it connected almost immediately.

"Carmichael, secure."

"Beckman, secure. Nice work in cover maintenance, Mr. Bartowski. I've spoken with the doctors already and hear that your team will be just fine, their time on the disabled list aside."

"That's correct, Ma'am. The mission in retrieving the warhead detonators and the hate group pedaling them was reasonably successful and we should be extracting information on their supply network shortly."

"My regards to you and your team, Mr. Bartowski, the Secret Service will be happy to hear that another high profile hate group has been removed for their concern." Beckman's voice held a note of pride as she continued, "On payroll officially for less than a fortnight and you already are accruing a healthy list of successful critical missions. I'll continue to expect this level of success, of course."

Chuck almost smiled, sensing exactly how pleased the General was, "Of course General. If you add in our record prior to my signing up, I'd imagine it would make for some entertaining reading." Chuck made a decision and decided to go forward even further on this strange new path, "Ma'am, if I may?"

"Yes, Mr. Bartowski?"

"Major Casey and Agent Walker are going to be recovering for a few weeks...I assume you're going to send additional operatives to be place holders?"

"I never encourage assumption under my command, but yes, I've already selected two NSA operatives who will assist you temporarily while Major Casey and Agent Walker heal."

"Ma'am, is there still a slot open at the internship we spoke of recently?" Chuck crossed his fingers while Beckman's surprise radiated through the phone.

"A few days ago, you stated that field training in addition to satellite testing facilities seemed to be your desired path. What changed your mind, Chuck?"

Chuck sighed, "General, I may have overestimated my capabilities here. I know that Major Casey and Agent Walker are well qualified to train me, but I think that the intensive course work you spoke of would help me more right now," Chuck couldn't keep the anger out of his voice, "I need to be better Ma'am. My team needs me to be better. If twelve weeks out of my comfort zone is the price I pay, then so be it. Better now while they're recovering than when it's too late and someone is injured beyond what a few weeks healing will take care of."

Again, General Diane Beckman was impressed by Charles Bartowski. Something she had thought positively impossible when she had first reviewed his profile over a year ago.

"I'll have the local office create mock ups of the technology internship cover papers I discussed, they should be to you via courier no later than tomorrow evening," While it wasn't exactlyconcern Chuck could detect in her tone, he certainly noted a cautious emphasis, " I'm not going to lie Chuck, this is going demand everything you have, and then it will take some more. The course normally takes a year and you'll be working on thirty percent of the material in a quarter of the normal timeline."

"As long as I'm back in time for my sister's wedding in July, and you don't object to correspondence back home, I'll break myself in half to go through their worst, Ma'am."

Were it not in violation of professionalism, Beckman would have laughed kindly at Chuck's determination to run headlong into something most operatives in training would have run screaming from the very mention of.

"Thank me when you get back home, Mr. Bartowski. As long as you maintain op-sec in your communications, you'll even be allowed phone calls per the instructors discretion, but no visitors."

Chuck knew it was going to take a bit of convincing to make sure everyone was accepting of this, but it was worth it.

"It sounds more than fair, Ma'am. I can't say I'm lookingforward to it, but a part of me has really started to relish a challenge again."

"Then I will wish you good luck, Mr. Bartowski. Your temporary handlers will accompany you to the training facilities and will assist in your training. Expect to leave within the week. Beckman, out."

Chuck sighed a little as he put his phone back in his pocket. The idea of leaving Sarah for three months almost made him sick, especially at such short notice, but she had supported him leaving a few days back when he had decided against this course of action, hopefully she'd still feel the same way. Either way he walked to her room to be with her until he could check on Casey.

_Man, I'm glad they took her knives away when they were treating her, _Chuck thought to himself as he entered Sarah's room and saw that she was as gorgeous as ever, even with a faint cast of exhaustion to her features.

Sarah smiled as he kissed her temple on her non injured side, glad that he was here.

"See?" She said tiredly, "aren't you glad you finally stayed in the car?"

Chuck laughed and kissed her lips, feeling a sense of the future around him.

It was comforting, even with the realization of the heavy work load in front of them.

_End._

_A/N: To be continued in the third forthcoming story, "Team Chuck Versus The Internship". I'm thinking that it'll be a little bit of a "Chuck without the Chuck" at times, and will flash to everyone at the Burbank base and Chuck and his temporary handlers and fellow trainees. _

_To everyone who read, enjoyed, and reviewed "Chuck Verses The General", thank you so, so much. Your comments inspired me to get this one out as soon as I could and I hope y'all enjoyed it. As always, insert shameless plug asking for reviews, suggestions, and critiques here. Thanks for reading!_


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